Hispanic Heritage Month begins this week and runs through mid-October, and conservation groups are encouraging people to celebrate by getting the family out to enjoy our public lands.

In Southern California, for example, Hispanic Access Foundation is sponsoring a stargazing event in Frazier Park for Hispanic pastors on Sept. 30.

Juan Rosas, a conservation program associate for the foundation, wants to dispel the myth Hispanics do not value public lands.

"To be able to enjoy God's creation is really important to our people," Rosas explained. "What a great way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and getting people to the great outdoors and bringing awareness to the great need here in California."

The stargazing event is intended to promote the PUBLIC Lands Act, which would protect 1.5 million acres of land in California. It passed the U.S. House, but has stalled in the Senate.

Census data show 39% of Californians are Latino, making it the largest ethnic group in the state. The population grew by 1.6 million people or more than 11%, between 2010 and 2020, which accounted for more than two-thirds of the state's total population increase.

Rosas noted California has many stunning state and national parks, but low-income families have a hard time getting there because they are often far from urban areas, and public transportation is spotty.

"In our beautiful state, we do have Joshua Tree, we have Big Bear, we have all these beautiful beaches, if you have a good car," Rosas pointed out. "But most of us are living in neighborhoods that are very nature-deprived."

Nationally, Latinos make up 18.5% of the population and are expected to hit 24% by 2065.

This Saturday, June 3, thousands of Californians will be among hundreds of thousands of Americans heading into the great outdoors to celebrate National Trails Day.

Thousands of events are planned nationwide from hikes to cleanup events and more.

Alanna Smith, parks program associate for the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, noted most trails cross the unceded ancestral homelands of native nations, adding the holiday is a good time to give back.

"Thinking about how these trails are created, and ways that we can help maintain them, that's a big part of National Trails Day," Smith explained. "Any way that we can give back is really a great way to celebrate National Trails Day, also."

This year is special, because it's the 30th anniversary of the first National Trails Day. The original was held on June 5, 1993, sponsored by the American Hiking Society. You can enter your ZIP code on their website, AmericanHiking.org to find an event or service project near you.

Smith added getting out on the trails has many benefits, both to physical and mental health.

"You also don't have to be out doing some strenuous activity," Smith pointed out. "You don't have to be trail running or mountain biking in order to reap those benefits. You know, just the act of being on the trail. It helps to promote calm, it lessens stress, it helps us to regulate negative emotions."

Organizers also encouraged people to consider other ways to make use of the trails this weekend from biking or bird-watching, to geocaching and nature photography.

The national system of recreation, scenic and historic trails was created in October 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Trails System Act into law.

The nonprofit Trust for Public Land has published its annual ParkScore rankings, and some area cities are high on the list.

Washington, D.C., took the top spot for the third year in a row, ranked as the nation's best big-city park system, with 24% of the District's land devoted to parks. The rankings are based on five metrics including park access, which calculates the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park as well as park equity, which compares access in communities of color to white communities and low versus high income levels. Other metrics include park acreage, investment and amenities.

Baltimore moved up one spot this year to 29th in the nation, with 87% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, much higher than the national average of 55%.

The Trust for Public Land also released a report on the power of parks to promote public health. In addition to offering people space for physical activity, contact with nature and social connectedness, Dr. Howard Frumkin, senior vice president and director for the trust's Land and People Lab, said parks offer additional benefits in urban settings.

"Lowering the temperature in the neighborhood, which helps people withstand heat waves. Lowering noise levels, noise being a very common urban stressor. Providing climate resilience through managing stormwater," he said. "So lots of pathways through which parks advance public health."

Rounding out the top five cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, ranked second and third, followed by Irvine, California, and nearby Arlington, Virginia.

In many places, researchers found, park planning and programs are catering to underserved groups or people needing improved accessibility. Linda Hwang, senior director for strategy and innovation at the Land and People Lab, said needs for innovation and creativity vary among different park agencies.

"We're seeing people with different types of mobility issues, can we really be thinking about all-inclusive design, for example, and even just trying to really cater to some of the emerging mental-health challenges," she said. "So that custom programming, custom design is something that we didn't expect to find. And so it's just been a really nice surprise for us to see that."

The report found that among some large cities including New York and Chicago, investments in parks have declined, but Hwang said the increased park investment seen in some mid-sized cities is a positive sign.

"I think one of the significant challenges is around investments, so that is one of the categories that we track in the park score index," she said. "And when we look across the trends across the 100 largest cities, we are happy that, in general, we see some rebounding from the COVID era cuts that we saw across city agencies. "

The report calculated Baltimore's park spending to be above average at $142 per capita.


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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is holding a public hearing today in Denver on its new rule, which aims to put conservation, protection of cultural resources and wildlife and recreation on equal footing with resource development on public lands.

Jerry Otero, co-chair of the group Next 100 Colorado, said he supports the proposal. Otero comes from a family with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. Both his grandfathers were miners, and many of his closest relatives have worked in the oil and gas industry.

"Certainly it has its values," Otero acknowledged. "But also let's make sure that we're balancing out those uses to incorporate the outdoor industry, which has become a big part of so many communities in Colorado."

Industry groups have criticized the proposal, which would add conservation as a priority along with drilling, mining and grazing uses of public lands. Oil and gas leasing are currently allowed on 90% of BLM-managed lands. The agency is holding meetings across the West, and will conclude with a virtual meeting on June 5. Public comments will be accepted through June 20.

The BLM manages more than 8 million acres of wild lands across Colorado, areas considered vital for safeguarding the state's drinking and agricultural waters, wildlife migration corridors, and the growing demand for access to the outdoors. Otero noted his group also will be watching to see how the new rule affects the state's most vulnerable communities.

"We want to make sure we're also holding the BLM accountable," Otero explained. "And see that it will be beneficial to people of color that are disproportionately impacted by oil and gas development, disproportionately impacted by climate change, disproportionately impacted by emissions and pollution."

Public opinion seems in sync with the BLM's proposal. A recent poll found 82% of Coloradans support the America the Beautiful initiative's goal of conserving 30 % of the nation's lands and waters by 2030.

Otero believes conservation is critical to build resilience in the face of increasing vulnerabilities, including drought, dwindling water supplies, wildfires and other climate-related disruptions.

"So the America the Beautiful effort is really just an ambitious goal to get us in the right position to be successful," Otero contended. "If we continue down the path that we're on, in terms of losing wildlife habitat, those vulnerabilities that we're seeing will see potentially irreversible impacts."


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